Got some new and improved sound from my ARC VT-100

Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2011
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Alpharetta, Georgia
An input tube went bad on me and the tech found the caps were going on my VT-100 which I have had since around 1995. He suggested we go for Mundorf EVO caps and he installed them, rebalanced the amp and it is sound really good. We had already upgraded it to KT120s which was a nice improvement. Sadly, there is not enough room for the KT150s due to width of the glass. Gotta get the Ref 150SE for that I suppose. :)

I've also discovered that this amp really works well with XLR cables. You get an extra 6db of gain but I think it sounds much better too.

It's nice when some reasonably-priced mods offer such an improvement in sound.
 

MPS

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2016
112
84
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Finland
Nice!
Which VT100 is it?
I had VT100 mkI and changed interstage caps to Solen Teflon, really opened up the sound. Original VT100 mkI&II have more tube like sound so I guess those caps where exactly the right choice (for my system).
 

Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2011
3,210
1,738
1,260
Alpharetta, Georgia
Nice!
Which VT100 is it?
I had VT100 mkI and changed interstage caps to Solen Teflon, really opened up the sound. Original VT100 mkI&II have more tube like sound so I guess those caps where exactly the right choice (for my system).

Mine is a Mark I but we added in an IEC so I could upgrade the power cord. It's sort of a faux Mark II now. :)
 

MPS

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2016
112
84
160
Finland
Well.. not quite. The main difference with mkI and mkII is the increased (doupled) power supply capacitance. I recapped power supply of my mkI with approx. 50% higher capacitance.
Anyway difference was not a major one, I quess KT120 makes much more difference. Do you know if anything else was changed to enable use of KT120 as it's not a direct replacement?

I installed a IEC socket as well enabling use of different power cords. Ended up with Nordost Shiva.

Do you know which caps was replaced with Mundorf EVO?
 
Last edited:

Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2011
3,210
1,738
1,260
Alpharetta, Georgia
Well.. not quite. The main difference with mkI and mkII is the increased (doupled) power supply capacitance. I recapped power supply of my mkI with approx. 50% higher capacitance.
Anyway difference was not a major one, I quess KT120 makes much more difference. Do you know if anything else was changed to enable use of KT120 as it's not a direct replacement?

I installed a IEC socket as well enabling use of different power cords. Ended up with Nordost Shiva.

Do you know which caps was replaced with Mundorf EVO?

The KT120s only needed to be rebiased by Robert, my tech. ARC said the KT120s work fine.
 

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